All images of Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward have been erased from the band’s website after he announced he will not be taking part in any upcoming live get togethers.
Ward pulled out of Saturday night’s reunion show in the band’s native Birmingham – a warm-up for their upcoming Lollapalooza concert – citing ongoing contract issues for his decision, and, in a letter to fans last week, he also scrapped plans to reteam with Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi for all their planned 2012 reunion shows.
And now, according to his wishes, he has been temporarily brushed out from past photos of the band on the official website.
A spokeswoman for Black Sabbath says, “At the request of Bill Ward, through his attorney, so as to not give the public the wrong impression about his involvement in the current Black Sabbath lineup, we have temporarily removed Bill Ward’s images from the main pages of the blacksabbath.com official website.
“In accordance with Bill Ward’s attorney’s request, we are doing so for the duration of the forthcoming shows.”
At Saturday night’s O2 Academy Birmingham reunion, Osbourne’s regular drummer Tommy Clufetos sat in for Ward, suggesting he will replace the Black Sabbath drummer.
Much of the sold out crowd’s focus was on Iommi, who was diagnosed with lymphoma at the beginning of 2012, and fans started chanting his name as the group took the stage and kicked off a thrilling show with Into the Void. Osbourne later referred to his bandmate as “the Iron Man” before the group broke into their classic tune of the same name.
The heavy metal icons wowed the 3,000 fans present for the long-awaited hometown comeback gig with classics like War Pigs, Snowblind, N.I.B, Black Sabbath and they ended the set with Children of the Grave before returning for a rousing encore of Paranoid.
Butler, Osbourne and Iommi will now prepare for upcoming festival appearances at Download in England and Lollapalooza.